Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Effortless Workholding Meets Effortless Planing

This week we're thinking about getting ready for the upcoming Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event next month in Chicago. We share a bench at this event with Brese Plane. And we happen to have the latest version of Ron's stainless steel panel plane on the travel bench. I've had the pleasure of working with Ron on some aspects of this plane, and testing it in a real shop environment over the past few weeks. Ron's made some tweaks to the panel plane design since I tested the first version last year, and amazingly enough, this plane is even better than that previous version. I've also been experimenting with some new honing techniques and processes that are yielding some amazing results. This version of Ron's panel plane has provided the finest hand plane experience I've ever had. I happen to have a camcorder in the shop yesterday, so I couldn't resist taking this footage. Nothing but wood (maple), the plane, and forward motion here. No chipbreakers, no magic, and definitely no dryer sheets!